the engagement love fest

i am not going to lie, it was a humungous load of work to get our party together but the finished product was more than we could have ever imagined. it was in one word magical. a night that will go down as one of the best in our lifetimes, we felt so loved and so special.

we made everything ourselves including mr bell making majority of the furniture including a huge new deck built into our house. we had torrential rain all week and our spirits and our new deck were definitely dampened. but my amazing parents came to the rescue and arranged a beautiful marquee for us and it worked a treat. looking back now it actually made the party better, it was so warm and cozy and allowed all of our decorations to hang perfectly.

we had some beautiful surprises from our friends abroad with video speeches coming from central america and spain on the night and an extra special speech all the way from london from mr bell’s parents. it really made the night even more amazing.

on the menu it started with home made dips, breads, cheeses and all the usual party food suspects. mr bell had built a “mexican food bar” out of an old vintage barn door from my parents farm. there were taco’s, burritos, guacamole and all the sides. it worked well as we didn’t have the event catered and there was around 80 guests, it allowed everyone to serve themselves. and then there were the sweets… all our family and friends made the most delicious treats! there were spanish cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, mini meringues, and more. it was a taste fiesta!

for the drinks we had a keg of beer for the boys and punch for all the girls. there was wine, spirits and of course the champagne was flowing! we served the punch in jam jars with polka dot flag straws.

decorations were all diy, i had the help of my closest girlfriends to make pom poms, neon garlands, scrub jam jar labels off and a million other fun jobs. we had fairy lights hanging in the marquee and it set the mood perfectly, we also had candles everywhere. flowers were organised by another close friend, they were prefect and i picked mainly whites, purples and pinks, we arranged the flowers into all my hundreds of vintage glass bottles i have been collecting for years. we also went to town on the cushion front, we wanted it to feel comfy and cozy. so beautiful bright cushions with an eclectic mix of prints teamed with mexican rugs definitely made for a cozy setting.

and last of all what we wore, my dress was from maurie and eve and i absolutely loved it, it was perfect. i wore a beautiful fresh flower crown made by the mega talented elise from elyssium blooms, check out her facebook page by clicking here. elise was an absolute dream to deal with and i still can’t believe i got to wear a peony in june. mr bell wore a white shirt with navy detail on the cuffs and collar from top man, a grey velvet bow-tie, maroon chinos and grey dunhill shoes (he looked very handsome).

it was a hectic few days of setting it all up but it really did come together perfectly. we had so much help from our family and from our close friends, we would have been so lost without everyone’s help.it was seriously the best night and more than we had ever dreamed of, we are both still on an engagement party high.

we all are now so excited for the wedding next year. 9 months and counting until we are officially mr and mrs bell…. xx